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From: Brian McCarville
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 13:16:36 -0800 (PST)
Subject: RE:BLUES WARNING WHOOP-ASS


Whew! Well I certainly got someone's attention out
there. Looking back at my original post I guess I was
a little preachy, so I can see why people would get
agitated, but geesh! Virtually every reply post
refered to me as "son" or "boy" (a bit much now,
really people), many suggested that I was too young to
know anything about music, and one even accused me of
not being able to count. *Sigh*.

There were so many replies that I can't possibly
answer them all individually (I wouldn't even be able
to write *this* post if I weren't home sick today),
but since many repeated similar ideals, I'll address
the most common answers in this one post and hope it
doesn't hit the fan *too* hard.

# 1. Many of you wrote to tell me that you are under
thirty. Well, I'm pleasantly surprised. I must confess
I did suppose I was one of, if not *the* youngest on
this list. I'm glad to be wrong.

But, seeing as this is the internet, and that tends
to skew to a younger audience, this list may not be
representative of the blues population at large.
Besides which, I've a feeling that statistically this
list is still mainly comprised of those over thirty.

# 2. Many of you wrote to point out that you didn't
care if blues tended towards an older audience, that
it was too sophisticated a music for youngsters to
appreciate .

The problem with this is that you need a young fan
base to insure a long life for a musical genre. The
reason the blues still exists as a pop entity at all
is because, during the sixties ,a healthy segment of
those in their twenties (at the time) and younger came
to appreciate the blues . Without that fresh audience
blues artists would've been hardly able to make a
living.

# 3. "Who Cares if Blues isn't top 40? "

I agree that being popular doesn't make something
good --and by the way I am NOT thrilled with current
top 40! I hate most of it with my very soul! But the
fact remains, Many of you came to the table of blues
because top 40 hero's like Hendrix, Clapton, Morrison,
Jagger + Richards, Plant + Page championed it and put
it in a format you could relate to. Without someone to
put the Blues in a modern context, I worry this
generation may not be able to relate to it.

# 4. "Today's music is garbage. The Blues is the
genuine real stuff."

The Blues troubadors of the thirties and early
forties certainly did make some honest and searing
music, but let's not forget that the later Chicago
style was largely party music. Boogie shuffles that
talked about dancing, drinking and "loving" (to put it
delicately). Sounds alot like party music today to me.
Don't get me wrong, party music has it's place, and
the Chicago sound had some great party tunes, but
let's not criticize modern music for doing an updated
version of the same thing.

# 5. "Young People aren't able to appreciate
good music."

Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Jelly Roll Morton, Jimi
Hendrix, Eric clapton, Robert Plant, Jimi Page, Jim
Morrison, Sonny Boy 1, Jr. Wells, James Cotton, Billy
Holiday, Elle Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie
Wonder and John Coltraine might disagree with you.
These people all made most of their important
contributions before they were thirty.

# 6. "Blues will never die, because it's too good."

Blues made 50 or 60 years ago may never die, because
much of it is good enough that serious musicians will
always have something to learn from it. What I'm
concerned about is that modern blues is often not so
good --unfortunately much of it merely copies the
past.
If modern Blues musicians find a way to express
themselves in a unique way that modern audiences can
relate to then the future of the Blues is alot more
secure.

Please understand, I love playing harp and am merely
concerned about the future of the instrument. My
concern is that I meet such resistance in so many when
I try to stretch the forms and potentials of both the
harmonica and the Blues itself. I think without change
music stagnates and dies.

Consider my posts (possibly over defensive but)
heartfelt and sincere.

Oh, and when throwing rocks please don't aim for the
face.

B.



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